Dr. Johnson's Works: Life, Poems, and Tales Part 19

ASPASIA.

Can Cali's voice Concur to press a hapless captive's ruin?

CALI.

Long would my zeal for Mahomet and thee Detain me here. But nations call upon me, And duty bids me choose a distant walk, Nor taint with care the privacies of love.

SCENE VIII.

IRENE, ASPASIA, _attendants_.

ASPASIA.

If yet this shining pomp, these sudden honours, Swell not thy soul, beyond advice or friendship, Nor yet inspire the follies of a queen, Or tune thine ear to soothing adulation, Suspend awhile the privilege of pow'r, To hear the voice of truth; dismiss thy train, Shake off th' inc.u.mbrances of state, a moment, And lay the tow'ring sultaness aside,

Irene _signs to her attendants to retire_.

While I foretell thy fate: that office done,-- No more I boast th' ambitious name of friend, But sink among thy slaves, without a murmur.

IRENE.

Did regal diadems invest my brow, Yet should my soul, still faithful to her choice, Esteem Aspasia's breast the n.o.blest kingdom.

ASPASIA.

The soul, once tainted with so foul a crime, No more shall glow with friendship's hallow'd ardour: Those holy beings, whose superiour care Guides erring mortals to the paths of virtue, Affrighted at impiety, like thine, Resign their charge to baseness and to ruin[a].

[a] In the original copy of this tragedy, given to Mr. Langton, the above speech is as follows; and, in Mr. Boswell's judgment, is finer than in the present editions:

"Nor think to say, here will I stop; Here will I fix the limits of transgression, Nor farther tempt the avenging rage of heaven.

When guilt, like this, once harbours in the breast, Those holy beings, whose unseen direction Guides, through the maze of life, the steps of man.

Fly the detested mansions of impiety, And quit their charge to horrour and to ruin."

See Boswell, i. for other compared extracts from the first sketch.

--ED.

IRENE.

Upbraid me not with fancied wickedness; I am not yet a queen, or an apostate.

But should I sin beyond the hope of mercy, If, when religion prompts me to refuse, The dread of instant death restrains my tongue?

ASPASIA.

Reflect, that life and death, affecting sounds!

Are only varied modes of endless being; Reflect, that life, like ev'ry other blessing, Derives its value from its use alone; Not for itself, but for a n.o.bler end, Th' Eternal gave it, and that end is virtue.

When inconsistent with a greater good, Reason commands to cast the less away: Thus life, with loss of wealth, is well preserv'd, And virtue cheaply say'd, with loss of life.

IRENE.

If built on settled thought, this constancy Not idly flutters on a boastful tongue, Why, when destruction rag'd around our walls, Why fled this haughty heroine from the battle?

Why, then, did not this warlike amazon Mix in the war, and shine among the heroes?

ASPASIA.

Heav'n, when its hand pour'd softness on our limbs, Unfit for toil, and polish'd into weakness, Made pa.s.sive fort.i.tude the praise of woman: Our only arms are innocence and meekness.

Not then with raving cries I fill'd the city; But, while Demetrius, dear, lamented name!

Pour'd storms of fire upon our fierce invaders, Implor'd th' eternal pow'r to shield my country, With silent sorrows, and with calm devotion.

IRENE.

O! did Irene shine the queen of Turkey, No more should Greece lament those pray'rs rejected; Again, should golden splendour grace her cities, Again, her prostrate palaces should rise, Again, her temples sound with holy musick: No more should danger fright, or want distress The smiling widows, and protected orphans.

ASPASIA.

Be virtuous ends pursued by virtuous means, Nor think th' intention sanctifies the deed: That maxim, publish'd in an impious age, Would loose the wild enthusiast to destroy, And fix the fierce usurper's b.l.o.o.d.y t.i.tle; Then bigotry might send her slaves to war, And bid success become the test of truth: Unpitying ma.s.sacre might waste the world, And persecution boast the call of heaven.

IRENE.

Shall I not wish to cheer afflicted kings, And plan the happiness of mourning millions?

ASPASIA.

Dream not of pow'r, thou never canst attain: When social laws first harmoniz'd the world, Superiour man possess'd the charge of rule, The scale of justice, and the sword of power, Nor left us aught, but flattery and state.

IRENE.

To me my lover's fondness will restore Whate'er man's pride has ravish'd from our s.e.x.

ASPASIA.

When soft security shall prompt the sultan, Freed from the tumults of unsettled conquest, To fix his court, and regulate his pleasures, Soon shall the dire seraglio's horrid gates Close, like th' eternal bars of death, upon thee.

Immur'd, and buried in perpetual sloth, That gloomy slumber of the stagnant soul, There shalt thou view, from far, the quiet cottage, And sigh for cheerful poverty in vain; There wear the tedious hours of life away, Beneath each curse of unrelenting heav'n, Despair and slav'ry, solitude and guilt.

IRENE.

There shall we find the yet untasted bliss Of grandeur and tranquillity combin'd.

ASPASIA.

Tranquillity and guilt, disjoin'd by heaven, Still stretch in vain their longing arms afar; Nor dare to pa.s.s th' insuperable bound.

Ah! let me rather seek the convent's cell; There, when my thoughts, at interval of prayer, Descend to range these mansions of misfortune, Oft shall I dwell on our disastrous friendship, And shed the pitying tear for lost Irene.

IRENE.

Go, languish on in dull obscurity; Thy dazzled soul, with all its boasted greatness, Shrinks at th' o'erpow'ring gleams of regal state, Stoops from the blaze, like a degen'rate eagle, And flies for shelter to the shades of life.

ASPASIA.

On me should providence, without a crime, The weighty charge of royalty confer; Call me to civilize the Russian wilds, Or bid soft science polish Britain's heroes; Soon should'st thou see, how false thy weak reproach, My bosom feels, enkindled from the sky, The lambent flames of mild benevolence, Untouch'd by fierce ambition's raging fires.

IRENE.

Ambition is the stamp, impress'd by heav'n To mark the n.o.blest minds; with active heat Inform'd, they mount the precipice of pow'r, Grasp at command, and tow'r in quest of empire; While vulgar souls compa.s.sionate their cares, Gaze at their height, and tremble at their danger: Thus meaner spirits, with amazement, mark The varying seasons, and revolving skies, And ask, what guilty pow'r's rebellious hand Rolls with eternal toil the pond'rous...o...b..; While some archangel, nearer to perfection, In easy state, presides o'er all their motions, Directs the planets, with a careless nod, Conducts the sun, and regulates the spheres.

ASPASIA.

Well may'st thou hide in labyrinths of sound The cause that shrinks from reason's pow'rful voice.

Stoop from thy flight, trace back th' entangled thought, And set the glitt'ring fallacy to view.

Not pow'r I blame, but pow'r obtain'd by crime; Angelick greatness is angelick virtue.

Amidst the glare of courts, the shout of armies, Will not th' apostate feel the pangs of guilt, And wish, too late, for innocence and peace, Curst, as the tyrant of th' infernal realms, With gloomy state and agonizing pomp?

SCENE IX.

IRENE, ASPASIA, MAID.

MAID.

A Turkish stranger, of majestick mien, Asks at the gate admission to Aspasia, Commission'd, as he says, by Cali ba.s.sa.